It follows last week’s “puzzling” behaviour by the bird, who showed all the tell-tale signs of egg laying before completely changing her behaviour.

Officials at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, who manage the reserve, said Lady could have laid a “phantom egg”, or the egg could have been damaged or destroyed.

If the egg which is now being incubated hatches, a chick can be expected in the next five or six weeks.

Scottish Wildlife Trust ranger Emma Rawling said: “After a mystery on the nest last week I’m so relieved that we can confirm there definitely is an egg in the nest now.

“Our 24 hour nest protection now becomes even more important – we will be monitoring the nest for as long as the ospreys are here and we hope we’ll see young hatch in a few weeks’ time.”

Ms Rawling said Lady kept “surprising” experts at the SWT.

“She still seems committed to breeding, even at her advanced age. I’m sure that her fans watching on the webcam across the world will be keeping their fingers crossed that these eggs hatch very soon,” the ranger added.

Failed to hatch

In 2010, experts feared Lady would die after she fell ill and stopped eating.

Czech students continued a week of action on Tuesday against the government’s plans to introduce fees for university courses.

Hundreds of people took part in a workshop on the social implications of the charges at Charles University in Prague before attending a meeting on building alliances between academics and trade unionists.

Activist Michael Uhl slammed the right-wing coalition government for seeking to slap students with fees of up to 3,500 crowns (£116) a term.

“We reject the imposition of any charges for secondary education and we reject any commercialisation of welfare system,” Mr Uhl declared.

“Tuition fees will threaten access to education for economically weaker sections of the population.”

Activists have planned a series of public meetings and protests in other university towns throughout the country including Olomouc and Liberec.

They are producing a newspaper, Unrest, before a mass anti-government rally in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Saturday.

See also here and here. The Czech name of the new students paper is Neklid.

Britain: Students inspired by the Occupy movement set up a protest camp today outside Oxford Brookes University. Around 20 students and supporters set up tents and banners in protest against an “unfair fees structure”: here.

April 2012. King Juan Carlos of Spain, Honorary President of WWF Spain, is recovering in hospital after breaking his hip in Botswana where he was on an elephant hunt. Apparently it isn’t the first time the King has been shooting big game in Africa, or elsewhere (Apparently he killed a bear in Russia a few years ago too). Whilst not illegal, it shows a complete disregard for his ‘subjects’ and total contempt for his role as ‘Honorary President of WWF Spain’.

There seems to be a strain amongst the rich and obnoxious worldwide that it is OK for them to use their wealth to destroy wildlife for their own pleasure. Donald Trump Junior’s recent elephant hunt in Zimbabwe was bad enough, but at least he has no pretentions to be a leader of conservation and he isn’t the king of a country (God forbid) that is undergoing severe economic problems at the moment.

WWF, who must be deeply embarrassed by this, have issued the following statement:

WWF-Spain requests a meeting with Spain’s royal authorities to share concerns about elephant hunt

We appreciate the deep concerns of many of our supporters and friends who have criticised the the recent participation of His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain in an elephant hunt in Botswana. The secretary general of WWF-Spain, Juan Carlos del Olmo, has written and requested an urgent meeting with the royal authorities to share widespread public concerns and public calls for His Majesty to step down as Honorary President of WWF-Spain.

His Majesty has held the honorary presidency, a symbolic position, since his involvement in the founding of the organization (then known as ADENA in Spain) in 1968. He has no direct involvement in the day-to-day operations of WWF in Spain or elsewhere.

WWF is absolutely committed to the conservation of wild elephants, a commitment we have held since WWF’s founding 50 years ago. We are tackling the biggest threats that elephants face in the wild, including poaching and habitat loss, by working with the governments, local communities and non-governmental partners in the countries where elephants roam to secure a future for this powerful symbol of nature. Decades of hard work by WWF and other conservation groups has resulted in large and expanding populations of elephants in southern Africa, including Botswana, where some 300,000 elephants now roam across the sub-region.

Alex Callinicos recently argued in these pages that the global economic crisis is far from over. The ink had hardly dried on his words when the crisis in Spain started growing to “Greek” proportions: here.

Self-styled ‘hardcore huntress’ [Melissa Bachman] sparks outrage after posting picture of herself with male lion she shot dead on Twitter as thousands sign petition to ban her from South Africa: here.

April 2012. Two rhinos have been poached in separate incidents over the last week and investigations are ongoing to determine circumstances of two other rhino deaths.

The first rhino killing occurred in Lewa Conservancy. The week-old carcass of a pregnant white rhino was discovered with its horn missing. Lewa Conservancy rangers together with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and police are investigating the incident.

Solio Ranch

The second case occurred in Solio Ranch in Laikipia County where a black rhino was killed and the horn taken as well. A joint KWS and General Service Unit (GSU) security team moved in when gunshots were heard to determine the circumstances of the shooting. A short while later, they stumbled on a fresh carcass of a known male rhino aged 12 years without its horn.

April 2012. The latest rhinos census in India’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) has recorded an increase of some 250 animals since the last census in 2009. The 2009 census found 2,048 rhinos in Kaziranga, and eight were subsequently translocated to Manas National Park.

With 2,290 rhinos in Kaziranga, Assam‘s rhino population is now just over 2,500 with Pabitora wildlife sanctuary containing 93 rhinos, Rajiv Gandhi National Park 100 rhinos and finally 22 in Manas National Park.

April 2012. Rhino conservationists were outraged following an alleged agreement made by five governments in Africa to grind rhino horn into a powder and sell it in pharmacies. However, despite this story appearing in several places around the world, it appears that there is no truth behind it: here.

High tech has been brought in to hammer rhino poachers… Composed and gently spoken, veterinarian and genetics specialist, Dr Cindy Harper, tells the extraordinary story of RhODIS: South Africa’s two-year-old rhino DNA index system that was first believed to be an impossible project, but is now playing a major role in prosecuting rhino poachers through forensic DNA testing: here.

Kenya: June 2012. Najin is one of the four northern white rhinos (there are only 8 known to exist anywhere in the world) on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy moved from the Czech Republic in 2009 in hopes that returning to Africa would induce normal behaviour and encourage breeding. As predicted, Najin has finally come on oestrus and has been mated twice in the past few months! Here.

The absence of elephants and rhinoceroses reduces biodiversity in tropical forest; here.

5 June, 2012 — Increasing alarm for the fate of the two rarest rhinoceros species, and growing concern over the increased illegal hunting of rhinos and demand for rhino horn affecting all five species, has prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia to declare 5 June 2012 as the start of the International Year of the Rhino. President Yudhoyono took this step at the request of conservation organisations, because the future survival of both the Javan and Sumatran rhinos depends on effective conservation action in Indonesia: here.

July 2012. In an effort to get to grips with the issue of permits for rhino trophy hunts being issued to large numbers of unlikely people from Asia, (More than 50% of permits to hunt rhinos recently have been issued to Vietnamese nationals, including, apparently, a number of alleged prostitutes and dancers) the South African Government has amended the standards for the marking of rhinoceros and rhinoceros horn and for the hunting of rhinoceros for trophy hunting purposes to strengthen requirements relating to hunting: here.

June 2012. The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) is pleased to announce the birth of a bouncing baby male Sumatran rhino born to Ratu, a 12-year-old Sumatran rhino living at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park. The calf was born on June 23 at 12:46 a.m. with no complications, attended by Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary veterinarians, Ratu’s keepers and advisors from the Cincinnati Zoo and Taronga Conservation Society Australia: here.

Asia’s few remaining Javan and Sumatran rhinos have been identified by conservationists as some of the most threatened animals in the world: here.

Pioneering assessment survey provides new information on the ecology and natural history of many species of vertebrates.

A biodiversity resource assessment conducted in the Southern Leyte Province of the Philippines in November, has resulted in the discovery of two new species of frog and a total of 229 recorded flora species, 31 of which are endemic.

Despite its reputation for having fragmented and degraded forests, this impressive list of fauna and flora demonstrates the under-appreciated biodiversity of the Philippines.

The assessment was led by Fauna & Flora International, the National Museum of the Philippines, the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau-DENR and DENR Region 8. Aimed at generating species inventories and practical information on key species-habitat associations, study results will inform forest and biodiversity management planning.

The month-long ground surveys in Southern Leyte covered six municipalities – Silago, Hinunangan, Sogod, Maasin, Tomas Oppus and Malitbog – and recorded a total of 229 flora species, 31 of which are unique to the Philippines.

The discovery of two undescribed forest-dependent species of frogs of the genus Platymantis is a significant result from the assessment, which is pioneering the detailed documentation of new and important information on the ecology and natural history of many species of vertebrates, endemic to Leyte.

The frogs, yet to be formally named, inhabit the montane and mossy forests of the Nacolod Mountain range. Both species differ markedly from other known Philippine Platymantis frogs by their body size, coloration patterns and calls. The two species are allied to two different species groups, the Platymantis guentheri group and Platymantis hazelae group. This is the first time that a member of the hazelae group has been discovered in Mindanao faunal region, of which the island of Leyte belongs to.

The National Museum of the Philippines reports that herpetologists from the United States and the Philippines are now working on formal taxonomic descriptions.

The total species includes: 10 that are classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered (most of which are Dipterocarp trees) and 20 Vulnerable species; 212 terrestrial species comprising 112 types of birds (41 of these are unique to the Philippines and 11 are threatened with extinction), 36 species of mammals (17 of which are unique to the Philippines) and 64 species of amphibians and reptiles (mostly found only in the Philippines).

The assessment indicated the general preference of Southern Leyte’s fauna to forest and riverine environments. The information generated now provides a baseline that can be used to predict impacts of habitat change on species. For local government units in Southern Leyte, the findings provide the scientific basis in designing appropriate management systems and monitoring protocols useful in establishing local forest and biodiversity areas, and will steer the rehabilitation of forests towards an efficient and more ecologically sound path.

It is anticipated that a significant number of species will be recorded from Southern Leyte with continued field sampling, especially if the surveys are conducted during the drier months of the year and if a wide range of habitat and elevational zones (from lowland Dipterocarp to mossy forests) are sampled.

Australia expects to pull most of its troops out of Afghanistan nearly a year earlier than planned, the prime minister announced Tuesday, saying Australian soldiers have nearly completed their mission to transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces in the decade-long war.

“This is a war with a purpose. This is a war with an end,” Gillard said in a speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. “We have a strategy, a mission and a timeframe for achieving it.”

Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, the largest force provided by any country outside NATO. The soldiers’ primary objective has been training an Afghan National Army brigade to take responsibility for security in Uruzgan province.

Canada has more than 900 soldiers in Afghanistan currently acting in a training mission. The country’s combat mission ended in July 2011.

Early exit hinted at in November

Australia had originally planned to withdraw its soldiers by the end of 2014, though Gillard had hinted at an early exit in November when she said the troops’ mission could be finished before then. The U.S. plans to withdraw all of its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Gillard said she expects Afghan President Hamid Karzai to announce in the next few months the transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces in Uruzgan and other provinces. Once that process starts, it will take 12 to 18 months to complete. Based on that timeframe, most of Australia’s troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2013.

Still, Gillard declined to give a specific date for the conclusion of the withdrawal, saying the start of the process is dependent upon Karzai’s announcement.

“When this is complete, Australia’s commitment in Afghanistan will look very different to that which we have today,” Gillard said. “We will have completed our training and mentoring mission. … And the majority of our troops will have returned home.”

Australia will consider keeping some special forces soldiers in Afghanistan beyond 2014, and will help fund the ongoing costs of Afghan security forces, Gillard said. The prime minister said she and Karzai will sign a partnership agreement at a meeting of NATO nations’ leaders in Chicago next month.

“Australia has an enduring national interest in ensuring that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for terrorists,” Gillard said.

Public support sliding

Australia’s military deployment in Afghanistan maintains bipartisan political support, but opinion polls show the popularity of the commitment among the Australian public has plummeted amid the rising death toll. Thirty-two Australian soldiers have been killed in the conflict.

Australian government announces accelerated troop withdrawal from Afghanistan: here.

About 50 people attended an April 17 rally in King George Square to mark a global day of action against military spending. The rally, organised by Just Peace Brisbane, called for Australian military funding to be radically cut back in the upcoming federal budget; here.

If things depend on Van de Gronden, the director of the World Wildlife Fund in the Netherlands, then the Spanish King Juan Carlos will no longer be honorary chairman of the organization. He said that in the NOS radio show Met Het Oog Op Morgen.